


The Last to Know

by KatieComma



Series: Finding Out [4]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-25 02:39:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14967320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatieComma/pseuds/KatieComma
Summary: When Mac finds out that his secret is out, he rushes to find Bozer to make sure his best friend doesn't learn the news from somone else, someone not Mac.





	The Last to Know

Mac was striding down the hallway of Phoenix, looking for Jill. They were working on a think-tanky project to present at an upcoming exhibition in Germany; A new voice recognition program that would identify digitally altered voices.

Mac’s phone buzzed in his pocket. It was Jack.

“Hey Jack,” he answered with a smile, “what’s up?”

“You’ve gotta find Boz, like, yesterday, Mac,” Jack sounded slightly panicked.

“Why? What’s going on?” Mac asked, Jack’s panic infecting him.

“I was just havin’ pizza with Riley, and she informed me that everyone already knows,” Jack whispered into the phone as though he were being surveilled.

The lunch date was something Jack had discussed with Mac. It was cute really. Jack had wanted to tell Riley for weeks, but neither Jack or Mac had been sure what was really going on between them, so they’d decided to keep everyone in the dark until they’d figured out exactly what they wanted to do. As soon as they’d made the decision that what they’d been doing went beyond sex mixed with familiarity and comfort, Jack had immediately petitioned to tell Riley. And, of course, Mac had agreed. The Phoenix team was family, but Riley went beyond that. Her and Jack shared something closer than that. Mac knew that Riley would be hurt if she found out after anyone else.

“What do you mean everyone knows?” Mac asked, retreating to a hallway corner and hushing his voice.

“She said everybody already guessed,” Jack continued, “that she knew we were together right after Christmas.”

Mac frowned. But they hadn’t been together that long. He said as much to Jack.

“That’s what I said man,” Jack replied, “but she brought up a lotta good points. She said everybody else figured it out too.”

Mac looked around the hallway frantically, as though Bozer would suddenly and conveniently appear before him. Mac would never forgive himself if someone else let it slip before he could tell Bozer. Bozer might never forgive him either. 

“I’ve gotta find Bozer,” he said, half to himself and half to Jack.

“You gotta find Boz, dude,” Jack agreed.

Mac ended the call and started toward the war room. Matty always kept track of everybody. She’d know exactly where Boz was.

Matty was standing in front of the war room’s display screen, tracking the movements of a tac team in Brazil, listening to updates over comms.

Mac leaned through the doorway and waited for a break in conversation.

“What is it blondie?” Matty asked, without turning around.

At this point, Mac had stopped questioning Matty’s uncanny ability to seem psychic.

“Do you know where Bozer is?” Mac asked.

“He worked overtime on those disguises for me yesterday so I let him have the afternoon off,” she replied, keeping her eyes on the screen.

“Thanks Matty!” Mac said, sprinting toward the garage.

 

Mac bolted in the door of his house, as though somehow another five minutes would mean someone else breaking the news to Bozer instead of Mac.

Bozer was buzzing around the kitchen, pulling ingredients from the fridge and cupboards.

“What’s going on?” Mac asked, sitting down at the counter, hoping he sounded casual.

“You know, I thought: everybody’s in town for once, and I’ve got the afternoon off, I’m makin’ ribs,” Bozer said, taking a large cut of meat from the fridge. “What about you? What are you doin’ home early?”

“Funny you ask,” Mac said, trying to sound nonchalant. “I really need to talk to you about something.”

“Is this about me eating your Oreos again?” Bozer asked. “I’m sorry about that man, I’ll pick up some more.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mac said, “it’s not that.”

“Cool man, what’s up?” Bozer stopped what he was doing and looked at Mac expectantly.

Here it was, and Mac’s tongue felt glued to the top of his mouth. Why didn’t he ask Jack for advice on this? Jack had already told Riley; Why didn’t he ask what he’d said? How could he think this would just be an easy conversation? It wasn’t. It was a huge conversation. Hey Boz, I’m in a relationship with one of our best friends and coworkers. He couldn’t just treat it casually like it wasn’t going to change everything.

“Mac, are you ok?” Boz asked, grabbing Mac’s arm to shake him back to the present.

“Yeah,” Mac said, “just give me one minute, ok?”

Mac snuck out onto the deck, closed the door behind him, walked to the edge of the deck and leaned against the railing. He dialled Jack’s number.

“How’d he take it?” Jack asked without saying hello.

“I haven’t told him yet,” Mac whispered as though Bozer would hear him through walls, windows and doors.

“Well, get on with it dude,” Jack scolded. “You don’t want him to hear it from Gina.”

“For the last time her name is Jill,” Mac said, getting frustrated, more with himself than Jack. Although, seriously, was it really that hard to learn a simple name like Jill? “I just don’t know what to say. I can’t just say it.”

“Say what?” Jack asked.

“The thing. The thing that we’re talking about,” Mac tried to clarify without actually saying it.

“What thing?” Jack asked.

“You know the…” and then Mac got tongue tied the way he did when he wasn’t comfortable with whatever subject matter was tripping through his brain.

“You can’t even say it to me,” Jack said. “I thought we were on the same page about this man.” He sounded disappointed.

This wasn’t how Mac wanted any of this to go. This was why he hadn’t wanted to say anything to anyone. It made things complicated. Sweaty nights spent at Jack’s with no explanation or justification the next day skipped all the complication. Why couldn’t they just have kept it the way it was? 

But Mac knew why. Because it wasn’t just about sex.

“We are on the same page,” Mac sighed.

“Are you sure man? Are we even in the same book right now?” Jack asked.

Mac closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair.

“Or are you readin’, like, Physics For Geniuses and I’m lookin’ through an old copy of GQ?” Jack continued without waiting for Mac to answer his first question.

“When have you ever read GQ?” Mac asked. “Do you even know what GQ is?”

“I know what GQ is smart ass,” Jack barked.

The familiar banter felt so good, it was calming to his brain. “What did you say to Riley?” Mac asked, seriously, discarding the useless argument.

“I told you, she already knew,” Jack said, “I said your name and she guessed it right away.”

“What had you planned to say?” Mac asked.

“When in the hell have I ever planned anything?” Jack asked. “I was gonna wing it; The Jack Dalton way.”

“You are not helping,” Mac said.

“Look Mac, just say it to me first,” Jack said, “pretend I’m Bozer.”

Mac turned and looked out to the blue horizon. Out over the beautiful city that was going about its day, not worrying about what anyone else thought of it.

“So Boz, listen…” he trailed off, still unsure just how to approach the conversation.

“I’m listenin’,” Jack said after a minute, prompting him to say more.

“Me and Jack… Jack and me… Jack and I…” Mac trailed off again.

“Look man, no one cares about the grammar,” Jack said, “just get it out there.”

Mac closed his eyes again and gripped the rough wooden deck railing hard under his fingers.

“Mac, I’m serious here,” Jack said, “if you can’t say it out loud, even to me, then maybe this isn’t the right move.” Again his disappointment crackled over the line.

“It’s the right move,” Mac said firmly. He opened his eyes and looked out at the neighbour’s pool, a single yellow rubber ducky floating in the hot tub.

“What’s the right move?” Jack asked. He was asking Mac to admit it, out loud.

“Dating Jack Dalton is the right move,” Mac said, and sighed out his doubts and stress with the sentence.

Jack’s voice got quiet. “Actually the right move is that thing you do with your-”

“Come on! Gross!” Riley’s voice cut through Jack’s on the other end of the call.

"Well that's what you get Riley," Jack's scolded, "for eavesdropping on someone's private conversation."

Mac smiled wide, and huffed out a chuckle. This was all going to be alright.

“See, that wasn’t so hard,” Jack said. “Wanna give it one more try?”

“I’m dating Jack,” Mac admitted aloud to the open air.

“There ya go,” Jack said, “now pull the bandaid already.”

Then he was gone. No goodbye, nothing to indicate he was leaving Mac on his own except the line going dead. Nothing else needed to be said, it was the best thing about them: They knew each other so well that the unsaid things outnumbered the spoken ones.

Mac pocketed his phone and turned around.

Bozer was standing halfway up the stairs.

“I didn’t mean to listen in,” Bozer started frantically talking, “not that I was listening in. I mean, I didn’t hear a thing. Not a single thing. I just thought you were out here a long time and I wanted to make sure you were alright. You seemed upset about somethin’ and I just wanted-”

“Boz,” Mac held up his hands to silence his oldest friend. “Slow down.”

“Sorry Mac,” Boz replied. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. To be fair: you’re a spy, you probably should have heard me coming.”

Mac smiled, and it wasn’t just a smile, it was a smile heavy with apology, brows turned up, eyes a little emotional. “I’m sorry Boz,” Mac admitted, “I didn’t want you to find out that way. That’s why I ran over here.”

“It’s cool man,” Bozer said, trying to feign nonchalance, but still standing halfway up the stairs, frozen in place.

Mac walked over to one of the deck chairs and dropped into it, indicating that Bozer should join him.

Bozer relaxed visibly at the comfortable and familiar prospect of just hanging out. He walked up the rest of the stairs and sat next to Mac, relaxing back into the chair.

They sat like that for five minutes, both staring out at the cloudless blue sky, before Bozer broke the silence.

“How long has it been goin’ on?” Bozer asked.

“About a month,” Mac admitted.

“You didn’t need to keep me in the dark.”

“I know Boz, I’m sorry,” Mac shook his head. “We didn’t really know what it was.”

“But now you know?”

Mac looked at Bozer and smiled. “Now I know.”

Bozer nodded approvingly.

“Hmmm,” Bozer hummed out.

“What?” Mac asked, knowing that noise: Bozer’s brain was going full speed.

“You know, now that I know about you two, and I’m thinkin’ back on some stuff, it’s been longer than a month hasn’t it?”

Mac shook his head. “It really hasn’t,” he said, “just the last month.”

“You can tell me Mac!” Bozer said, excited, sitting forward and smacking a hand on the table between them.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Mac said, looking Bozer in the eye.

“Come on man,” Bozer gave Mac that knowing, sly look he used when he thought he’d figured out a secret. “What about Florida?”

Mac shook his head.

“You guys came back wearing each other’s clothes!” Bozer said, unbelieving.

“We had a good reason for that!” Mac defended, pointing at Boz for emphasis.

“That reason was questionable from the start,” Bozer said, but moved on. “Tel Aviv?”

“We fell asleep in the car on a stakeout!” Mac said.

“Sleeping in the car,” Bozer emphasized each word with air quotes. “Yeah, sure.”

“I’m serious man, it’s only been the last month.”

“What about Michigan? The ensuite?” Bozer asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mac opened his mouth to say something, thought about it and relaxed back into the chair. “Alright, I’ll give you that one.”


End file.
